The Soul
A handful of brain holds me: I consumeSo much that all the books the world contains,Cannot allay my furious famine-pains:--What feasts were mine! Yet hunger is my doom.With one world Aristarchus fed my greed;This finished, others Metrodorus gave;Yet, stirred by restless yearning, still I crave:The more I know, the more to learn I need.Thus I'm an image of that Sire in whomAll beings are, like fishes in the sea;That one true object of the loving mind.Reasoning may reach Him, like a shaft shot home;The Church may guide; but only blest is heWho loses self in God, God's self to find.
Words in this poem
- handful n.
- As much as the hand will grasp or contain. [AS. handfull.]
- famine n.
- General scarcity of food; dearth; a want of provisions; destitution. [F. famine, fr. L. fames hunger; cf. Gr. hani loss, lack, ha to leave.]
- greed n.
- An eager desire or longing; greediness; as, a greed of gain. [Akin to Goth. grdus hunger, Icel. graedhr. sq. root34. See Greedy.]
- crave v. t.
- To ask with earnestness or importunity; to ask with submission or humility; to beg; to entreat; to beseech; to implore. [AS. crafian; akin to Icel. krefia, Sw. kr, Dan. kr.]
- sire n.
- A lord, master, or other person in authority. See Sir. [F. sire, originally, an older person. See Sir.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
The Soul is in the public domain. This text is taken from Sonnets, Project Gutenberg ebook #10314, the John Addington Symonds translation; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Michelangelo Buonarroti, The Soul, in Sonnets (1878), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #10314, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/michelangelo-sonnets/the-soul.html, id L15223.
Form and metre
The Soul is 14 lines in a single stanza. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 89%). 100% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 10.0 syllables. 21% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See other poems in iambic pentameter.
Measured by Laurel's pipeline, not copied from a handbook: how stress and metre are counted, how rhyme is lettered, how a drifted rhyme is found. Where the dictionary cannot confirm a rhyme the letter is withheld, not guessed.
Rhyme words, stanza by stanza
The word that ends each line, lettered by the rhyme it makes; a dash is a line whose rhyme the dictionary could not confirm.
- 1 ABBACDDCAEF-EF consumeA · containsB · painsB · doomA · greedC · gaveD · craveD · needC · whomA · seaE · mindF · home · heE · findF
Scansion, line by line
Each line with its syllable count and the stresses the words themselves fix: / stressed, ˘ unstressed, · a syllable the word leaves free and the metre decides. Read against iambic pentameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| A handful of brain holds me: I consume | 10 | ·/······˘/ |
| So much that all the books the world contains, | 10 | ········˘/ |
| Cannot allay my furious famine-pains:-- | 10 | ˘/˘/·/˘/˘· |
| What feasts were mine! Yet hunger is my doom. | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| With one world Aristarchus fed my greed; | 10 | ·········· |
| This finished, others Metrodorus gave; | 10 | ·/˘/˘····· |
| Yet, stirred by restless yearning, still I crave: | 10 | ···/˘/˘··· |
| The more I know, the more to learn I need. | 10 | ·········· |
| Thus I'm an image of that Sire in whom | 10 | ···/˘··/·· |
| All beings are, like fishes in the sea; | 10 | ·/˘··/˘··· |
| That one true object of the loving mind. | 10 | ···/˘··/˘· |
| Reasoning may reach Him, like a shaft shot home; | 10 | /˘········ |
| The Church may guide; but only blest is he | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| Who loses self in God, God's self to find. | 10 | ·/˘······· |
The reader shows the same poem with its rhymes coloured and a stress row above each line, the notes beside their stanzas, and any word's definition on a tap; the analysis page takes the whole book apart. How every part of this site was made.